Door fasteners



June 30, 1959 J. HARMAN 2,892,653

DOOR FASTENERS Filed April 2, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 30, 1959 J. HARMAN 2,892,653

DOOR FASTENERS Filed April 2, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent DOOR FASTENERS Julius Harman, Oakham, Dudley, England, assign'or to Wilmot-Breeden Limited, Birmingham, England Application April 2, 1956, Serial No. 575,421 Claims priority, application Great Britain April 12, 1955 1 Claim. (Cl. 292216) This invention relates to vehicle door fasteners of the kind employing a rotary toothed catch engageable with a striker, and has for its object to provide such a fastener in a simple and convenient form.

According to the invention a vehicle door fastening comprises in combination a body part for attachment to the door having a slot for the reception of a striker on a relatively fixed part of the vehicle body, a rotary toothed catch on the body part for engagement with the striker when disposed within the slot, a pawl pivoted on the body part and having a pair of teeth for alternative direct engagement with the catch, one of said teeth being adapted to engage the catch in a fully latched position of the door and the other being adapted to engage the catch in a safety position, and means for rocking the pawl in a catch releasing direction from the inside and from the outside of the door.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of one form of door fastening in accordance with the invention, and Figures 2 and 3 respectively are views of the fastening from the left and right hand sides of Figure 1.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention adapted for attachment to the door at its free vertical edge is a body part formed by two plates 4 and 5 connected together in parallel relationship. In a plate 4 is formed a substantially horizontally extending slot 6 having a bell mouth at its open end. This slot 6 is adapted to receive a striker 7 on the door pillar or other fixed part of the vehicle body as the door is moved to the closed position, and serves to position the door accurately in a vertical direction.

Also adjacent the slot there may be provided in the body part a spring loaded slidable wedge piece 8, an inclined edge of which partially overlaps the slot, and serves by abutment with the striker 7 to prevent relative vertical movement of the door when closed.

A rotary toothed catch 9 is mounted for rotation on a spindle 10 on the body part adjacent the slot 6 and in a position in which its teeth can overlap the slot. The arrangement is such that as the door is closed the striker engages a tooth of the catch 9, and on further closing movement rotates the catch until a succeeding tooth of the catch overlaps the slot. The one flank of each tooth has a fiat 9a which is substantially parallel to a radius of the catch, while the other flank is of curved shape.

For preventing reverse rotation of the catch and thereby holding the door in the closed position, there is pivotally mounted on the body part a spring-loaded pawl 11 of bell crank form which is adapted to engage directly with a tooth of the catch 9 remote from the slot 2,892,653 Patented June 30, 1959 6. This pawl 11 has a pair of teeth 11a and 11b for alternate engagement with a tooth of the catch. The tooth 11a which is constituted by a nose at the one end of the pawl is adapted to engage a flat 9a of a tooth of the catch when the door is in the fully latched position, while the other tooth 11b which is constituted by a step in one edge of the pawl, is adapted to engage the same tooth to hold the door in a safety position, if the door is not closed to the fullest extent. Further the pawl 11 is so shaped that its interaction (under the influence of its spring loading 12) with an adjacent tooth of the catch 9 ensures that another tooth of the catch 9 is located relative to the slot 6 in a position to be engaged correctly by the striker 7. Thus damage of the catch due to the striker engaging an end of a tooth is prevented.

The pawl 11 is adapted to be moved in a catch releasing direction from both the inside and the outside of the door. For releasing the catch from the outside of the door there is provided a sheet metal pawl releasing lever 13 which is pivotally mounted on the body part and has formed on it a laterally extending part 13a for contact with the inner end of a push button 14 operable from the outside of the door. This lever 13 is loaded by a coiled torsion spring 15 surrounding its pivot pin and bearing at one end on the part 13a, while its other end bears upon a boss on the catch 9, thereby preventing free rotation of the catch when the door is opened. Also on the lever 13 is a laterally projecting pin or other part 16 adapted to make contact with the arm of the pawl 11 remote from the teeth 11a and 11b, when the lever 13 is moved clockwise as viewed in Figure 1, thereby imparting a catch releasing movement to the pawl when the press button 14 is depressed.

On a lateral projection 5a of the body part is pivotally mounted a bell crank lever 17 for imparting a catch releasing movement to the pawl from the inside of the door. One arm of this lever is located beneath a shoulder 11c on the pawl, so that movement of the lever 17 in an anti-clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 3 will raise the pawl from engagement with the catch. Movement of the lever 17 in the opposite direction will cause a laterally extending part 17a to be located in blocking relationship to a part of the lever 13, thereby preventing movement of the lever 13 and providing means whereby the fastening can be locked from the inside against release from the outside. The lever 17 is adapted to be actuated by any convenient manually-operable handle (not shown) at the inside of the door.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A vehicle door fastening of the kind specified, comprising in combination a body part adapted to be attached to the vehicle door and provided with a slot for reception of a striker on a fixed part of the vehicle, a springloaded slidable wedge piece mounted on the body part with an inclined edge portion of the wedge piece overlapping an edge of the slot sufliciently to urge the striker into contact with the opposite edge of the slot for locating and preventing vertical movement of the door when the latter is closed, a rotary catch provided with a plurality of peripheral teeth and mounted on the body part at a position which enables the teeth to overlap the said opposite edge of the slot, for engagement with the striker during and after closing of the door, without preventing contact of the striker with the said opposite edge of the 3 slot when thestriker is located in the slot between consecutive teeth of the rotary catch, the spacing of the catch teeth and the relationship of their inner ends to the slot being such as to permit the striker to be urged by the wedge piece into contact with the last mentioned edge of the slot, a pawl pivoted on the body part and provided with a pair of teeth for alternative engagement with any one of the catch teeth, and means for rocking the pawl out of engagement'with the catch from inside and outside the vehicle, one of the pawl teeth being formed by a .nose on the pawl, and serving to .co-operate with the catch for retaining the door in its fully closed position, and the other pawl tooth being formed by .a

step in one edge of the pawl, and serving to co-operate with the catch for retaining the door in a partially closed safety position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,173,765 Potter Sept. 19, 1939 2,634,147 Robertson Apr. 7, 1953 2,782,062 Smith Feb. 19, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,039,871 France May 20, 1953 

